What about love?

Magnet #1147 - Mills & Boon, Huntley proposes

Today's Mills & Boon magnet was from a good friend who also loves a good love story. I figured it should be used for today, because there are just some things you take for granted will always be around.

Paperback romance books are one. Soap operas are another.

Today, ABC Daytime sounded yet another death knell of soap operas by canceling two of their long-running shows, All My Children and One Life to Live in the coming months, planning on replacing them with ridiculous reality and lifestyle programming.

It's not a surprise to anyone who watches soaps, really. We've known they were dying for years, but we were still surprised when it finally happened.

After all, ABC has been throwing Hail Mary passes for years, trying to keep the shows afloat - moving productions across country, skimping on production values, overworking their talent and crew, reducing show orders, and myriad other tactics.

Ironically, instead of saving the shows, quality suffered immensely, viewers left in droves, leaving ABC to finally manage to drive the shows into the ground.

To be sure, the economic impact is going to be scary - hundreds of people will now be out of work, not to mention the trickle-down effect to other ancillary outlets (industry magazines, a steady stable of pretty talent to pull for other shows, marketing, production, etc.).

But more dramatically (and fittingly so), there's an emotional impact that canceling these two shows will have. It's been playing out all over Twitter and FB all day - stories of how folks watched it with their mothers and grandmothers, of how the families of Pine Valley and Llanview are like real families, of how these shows have helped shape generations of women and men since they started airing more than 40 years ago.

And, if you think about it, these TV families have been coming into people's homes for 40 years, it's no wonder that there's a real sense of loss and betrayal from the audience.

It's fairly sad-making, no matter how much we were prepared for it.

Anyway, too many other folks will write scathing and/or objective autopsies of what ABC did wrong over the last decade, and still other folks will write heartfelt good-byes to the shows, so I won't go on about it anymore.

But, I have to believe this: Romance is still the best-selling genre for a reason.

There will always be men. And there will always be women. And there will always be men and women falling in love with each other.

Which means that it doesn't matter what format it's in, there will always be great love stories to tell.

Now we just have to look harder find them.

Who is Don Draper?

Magnet #969 - Don Draper

[spoilers here]

I refused to read any of the articles or Tweets about the Mad Men finale, so I don't know if everyone liked or hated it. What I can say is that I loved it. Like, loved it.

Who is Don Draper, indeed? It's a question we've been asking since the first time he graced our screens three years ago. And, I gotta tell you, after this finale? It's a question I'm still asking.

I think that's the beauty of this show. We may never know the answer, but we'll sure as hell be intrigued by the journey.

Earlier yesterday, a friend and I were talking about what we thought would be the big cliffhanger, and I threw out there that I didn't think there'd be a big cliffhanger, so all that's left was that he'd propose. Only, seriously? I actually thought he'd settle down with Faye. I'm happier than I should be (and just as damn snarky as Peggy and Joan) that it's Megan, but I really thought he'd do the practical thing and marry Faye and find a house in Stamford or Greenwich. It's what they do, those boys.

I do think I might be the only one happy that he's happy with Megan. Clearly, Don being Don, he won't be happy because he's just feeling all sad about Anna, but I don't remember Don being this puppy dog over any of his many women, so maybe this will stick? Even though, there's a part of me that thinks Megan's a little more devious than we think and that she really might end up as one of Peggy's creatives. (Though a part of me was scared Peggy was gonna go cry in the bathroom over Don, and that's a whole can of worms I don't want to see. Yet.)

The finale on the whole though was just fantastic. Freakin' Peggy and Cos nailing the pantyhose account, with Peggy writing copy on the spot for the clients? Awesome.

Bets freakin' out on Carla, classic. (Though, dudes, tonight, when Don pulled out that bottle from the cabinet? It reminded me that we haven't seen an honest smile from her in years.)

And Joanie, keeping Roger's baby? I kinda figured she'd do it, but damn, to pass it off as hub's? Can't wait til next season, though I'm calling it now. He's gonna get killed in Vietnam, and Joanie (the new awesome DOO at SCDP) is gonna be stuck on her own and Roger's gonna have to deal with the fallout and a new baby carriage.

Overall, I've had mixed feelings over this season. While I know in my head it's fiction, I couldn't help seeing the last year and a half of my career in this season - the beginning of a new agency, the animosity of a new regime, the fighting over office supplies, the fear of losing clients, false promises, beating the bushes for new clients, wondering if we'd be around in the next six days, let alone six months. It's some scary stuff. Watching Don go through it at SCDP has been painful on a professional level.

But, this was a terrific way to end the season...though, I would have loved to actually see the Drapers wandering around Disneyland.

Oh! I'll probably do a longer post on it, mainly because I have five of the six buttons magnets for it, but ya'll need to run out right now and grab this book, Mad Men: The Illustrated World. It's adorable. It's well designed, cutely written in the spirit of the show and the times, and I loved it so much, I bought it twice at Comic-Con.

Seriously. Go. Now.

The Empire strikes back

Magnet #418 - AMC Loews Empire Theatres 25

Last week, I figured out that the last movie I went to see a movie house was Burn After Reading, my boyfriend George's movie. That was seven months ago.

I know! If you know me at all, you know that I must be on crack, or something's off-kilter. I mean, I'm usually the girl who must see a movie the second it comes out.

There's no real reason for it, I didn't even notice, to be honest. And, since this is a magnetblog, I don't even want to delve into this unJoylike behavior, thank you.

So anyway, this magnet is from one of my favorite movie houses in town. Seriously - 25 houses, all in one. In the middle of Midtown! 25! Hmmm, I wonder if I've even been in all 25.

It's gorgeous - this cinematic treasure was opened in 1912, and went through several iterations as the Eltinge (where some famous actor [Eltinge] did female impersonations - seriously, although apparently Gable and Olivier played it, too!), and then as the Laffmovie (Hahahaha - clever) movie house, and then finally the Empire movie house, before closing down in the 80s.

When I first moved here, it was this tiny little building down the block. Then a developer with big plans for 42nd street decided to do something with it. They picked up the building and moved it. Like 170 feet. Down the street. I kid you not. Then, they finished off the renovation by building the movie house around and beside it.

One day it was close to Port Authority, and the next, they were toward the middle of the block. It's no big thing, for sure, buildings all around the world are moved all the time. But, here? In New York? The city that will keep razing and building and razing and building until there's not a patch of green grass left? No way! It's absolutely amazing that someone would actually give an old building a second life, by preserving and reusing it, versus just razing the heck out of it. So, yay for a great comeback, Empire!

Lucky us. Or me, rather. This many theatres and this many movies in this one complex makes it one of the best places in town to do an all-day movie marathon in - and yes, I pay for all three (or four) movies, rather than sneaking from one house to another.

C'mon, like you're surprised.

If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.*

Magnet #213 - Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design

So according to my sister, the Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design is a must-see...the next time I'm in Milwaukee. I figured with this week being Advertising Week and the results from last night's Emmys, this magnet fit pretty well.

When Mad Men premiered, I couldn't figure out if I was enamored or horrified watching Don Draper and his associates at Sterling Cooper, and his family a Metro-North ride away. A season and a half, and one Outstanding Drama Series Emmy into the show, and I'm still trying to decide.

I'm enamored because the production itself is outstanding - from the acting, writing, and directing to the costumes, the attention to period details, and hair/makeup.

I'm horrified because the characters scare the hell out of me - the lies they tell, the deeds they do, the imperfections that make them more human than characters on television.

I'm enamored because advertising's the focus - the clients, the pitches, the true-to-life never-ending battle between the Creative and Account folks, and even the tidbits during the commercial breaks are pretty neat.

I'm horrified because when I talk to the older guys in the biz, they say they don't need to watch it...they lived it. Whoa.

Either way, it's been one of the best shows on television, and a defining one for AMC. They took a chance on what was arguably a show that wouldn't have lasted more than a month on regular network tv. But, AMC kept it on, let the show find and build its audience, gaining more and more traction with each passing episode. And yesterday's Emmy proves that everyone's finally joining the party. Yay for Mad Men!

*David Ogilvy, "Father of Advertising"